AD 1550Around this time
Maoris of New Zealand build fortified enclosures

AD 1596Alvaro de Mendana
is the first European to sight the Cook Islands

AD 1600Tupa, stone
towers with inner chambers, built on Easter Island

AD 1600Tu'i Konokupolu
dynasty take power in Tonga

AD 1616Dutch explorers
are the first Europeans to visit Tonga

AD 1680Statue building
ends on Easter Island; resources and population decline

AD 1700Tahitians and
Europeans meet for the first time, on Moorea Island

AD 1722Dutch navigator
Jacob Roggeveen is the first European to explore Samoa

AD 1767British Captain
Samuel Wallis is the first European to reach Tahiti

AD 1769Cook takes formal
possession of New Zealand for Britain

AD 1770South Cape, New
Zealand, first sighted by James Cook

AD 1770Spanish sailors
reach Easter Island

AD 1773Cook discovers
Hervey Islands, later named the Cook Islands

AD 1774Cook lands on
Easter Island and trades goods for food

AD 1774Cook arrives at
Marquesas Islands

Southeast Asia By David D

1450 Three major Thai states
exist—Ayudhya, Lan Na, and Lan Xang. Different styles of Buddha image are
associated with each center.

1453–1472 Under the reign of Shin
Sawbu, daughter of two earlier kings, Pegu is promoted as a center of Buddhism in Burma. Trade also flourishes under her rule.

1500–1518 Raden Patah of Demak in
Indonesia also rules Majapahit to the south. He promotes trade and Islam in Indonesia and Sumatra.

ca. 1511 The Portuguese, who
control the Strait of Malacca as well as the town and port of Malacca, send a
mission to Ayudhya in Thailand requesting trading rights in return for Western firearms and ammunition.

1558 Lan Na in Thailand becomes a
Burmese vassal state.

1563 Suma Oriental is
published in Venice. Based on the notes of the Portuguese Tomé Pires, who
traveled in Southeast Asia from 1512 to 1515, it is one of the first European
sources for the history of that region.

1578–1606 Manila in the
Philippines is a center of commerce as well as home to numerous Spanish Catholic missionaries.

ca. 1580–1600 The state of
Mataram, which plays a prominent role in the seventeenth century, arises in
Indonesia.

1595–1598 The first Dutch trading
missions arrive in Indonesia.

1600s–1700sTrade
in pepper and other goods enriches the Lampung region of southern Sumatra,
resulting in a flowering of textile production and other art forms.

ca. 1601Dominican
monks establish the College of Saint Thomas in Manila.

1602The
Dutch East India Company is founded. During the 1600s, the Dutch establish
control over much of the Indonesian archipelago from their headquarters at
Batavia (Jakarta) and continue to be the primary traders in the region until
the early nineteenth century. Spices and then coffee, rubber, and petroleum
are among the most valued exports. Dutch trade goods and imagery become
incorporated into the archipelago's indigenous arts and cultures. Chinese and
Japanese porcelains
are brought to Europe and traded also in Southeast Asia.

1626–73Civil
war ravages Vietnam.

1627Alexandre
de Rhodes, a French Jesuit, creates a script known as quoc ngu in
order to use the Roman alphabet in writing the Vietnamese language.

1659

The
Dutch destroy Palembang on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia.

1673

A
French mission brings letters from Pope Clement IX and King Louis XIV to
Thailand. The Ayudhya court responds in 1684 with a request for political
alliance, but the French are primarily interested in gaining converts to
Christianity.

1700s or earlierChinese
porcelain and other trade goods make their way into the interior of Borneo
via trade along major rivers. In addition to the importance of porcelain as a
source of wealth and prestige, Chinese imagery, particularly that of dragons,
also influences Borneo's indigenous Dayak artists.

1705–48The
life of Doan Thi Diem, one of the most celebrated Vietnamese poets. Other
renowned women writers include Ho Xuan Hong, who lived at the end of the
century, and another artist who is known only as the "Wife of the Chief
of the Thanh Quan District."